Fatal work injuries in metro Boston at highest level since 2000

Fatal work injuries claimed 75 lives in the metro Boston area in 2016, the most since 2000, according to the federal government.

The work-related fatalities here shot up by 27 -- a roughly 56 percent increase -- over 2015 and corresponded with a smaller 7 percent increase in fatal work injuries nationwide in 2016. Among the 75 victims of work-related deaths in the Boston area in 2016, 69 were men.

Across the country, according to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers released Monday, there were 5,190 fatal work injuries recorded in 2016, up from 4,836 fatal injuries in 2015. It was the first time since 2008 that annual workplace fatalities nationwide topped the 5,000 mark.

Locally, fatal occupational injuries in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metropolitan area hit a recent low of 22 in 2012.

The numbers are drawn from the U.S. Department of Labor's Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, which compiles a count of all fatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. and uses state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries.

According to the new data, construction and extraction occupations had the highest number of fatal work injuries in the Boston area in 2016 with 24.

"Exposure to harmful substances or environments resulted in 19 deaths, violence and other injuries by persons or animals resulted in 17 deaths, while falls, slips, or trips were responsible for 16 deaths," the bureau reported. "Within the exposure to harmful substances or environments category, workplace deaths due to exposure to other harmful substances more than tripled over the year, from 5 fatalities to 16."

The harmful substances and environments category includes deaths "resulting from nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol -- unintentional overdose."

Opioid-related deaths connected to the workplace have always been reportable, and a BLS official said Monday the new data shows a spike in such reports.

Transportation incidents were the leading cause of worker fatalities in the U.S. in 2016, accounting for 40 percent of fatal work injuries.

The bureau said 73 percent of those who died in the Boston area from a workplace injury were white non-Hispanics, compared to the national share of 67 percent. Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 13 percent of those who died from a workplace injury in the Boston area.

In April, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health highlighted the growing number of workers killed on the job, and noted the new data includes deaths due to opioid use related to work. According to MassCOSH, "these workers, when injured, feel pressure to return to work before they are ready and to work in pain, a situation that can easily lead to addiction to dangerous painkillers, and as we are increasingly seeing, overdoes and death."

Gov. Charlie Baker in March signed a bill extending Occupational Safety and Health Administration protections to all public sector workers, and the state's new criminal justice law features a $250,000 fine for corporate manslaughter, up from the previous $1,000 maximum fine.

According to MassCOSH, there are 29 OSHA inspectors, or roughly one for every 115,863 workers in Massachusetts, and "it would take 182 years for OSHA to pay a single visit to each workplace in the state."